Marinara Sauce

Marinara (mariner's) sauce
is an Italian red sauce usually made with tomatoes, garlic,
herbs (such as basil), and onion. However, there are many
variations. Some of these include the addition of capers, olives
and spices.

Traditional Italian cuisine utilizes this sauce to add flavor
to pasta, rice, seafood and pizza. In recent years, Americans
have found use for it as a dipping sauce for other foods as
well.

Italians refer to marinara only in association with other
recipes. For instance, spaghetti alla marinara literally
translates to mariner's spaghetti. However, tomato sauce is
called salsa al pomodoro which includes marinara sauce as well
as other tomato-based sauces.

OriginCooks aboard Neapolitan ships
invented marinara sauce in the mid-1500s after Spaniards
introduced the tomato (a New World vegetable) to Europe. This
meat-free sauce was easy to make and resisted spoiling due to
the high acid content of tomatoes. This made it ideal for
lengthy sea voyages hundreds of years before refrigeration
methods were invented.